1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to an exposure apparatus having a blind and a method of driving the exposure apparatus. More particularly, exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to an exposure apparatus having a blind capable of removing a stain on a substrate to improve display quality and a method of driving the exposure apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus includes an LCD panel including a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, a color filter substrate opposite to the TFT substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the TFT substrate and the color filter substrate.
The TFT substrate and the color filter substrate generally have a multi-layered structure formed by a photo step, an exposure step, and an etching step.
In the exposure step, light is irradiated on a substrate, on which a photoresist layer is coated, through a photo mask having a specific pattern. The photoresist layer is reacted with the light to form the pattern according to the pattern formed on the photo mask.
To decrease a cost for manufacturing the liquid crystal display apparatus, a size of a mother substrate increases so that more liquid crystal display panels are formed in one manufacturing process. However, according to an increase of the size of the mother substrate, a size of the photo mask may be also increased so that the cost for manufacturing the liquid crystal display apparatus may be increased.
Recently, a small mask type exposure process is employed in order to decrease the size of the photo mask, in a conventional photolithography method. In the small mask type exposure process, the substrate is exposed using a plurality of exposures and a plurality of small photo masks which are moving.
The substrate has an exposed area and a non-exposed area. The exposure includes a blind blocking an exposure window of the photo mask to prevent the non-exposed area from being exposed. The blind is moved from a first side of the exposure window to a second side of the exposure window to block a first non-exposed area. The blind should be returned from the second side of the exposure window to the first side of the exposure window after blocking the first non-exposed area to be ready to cover a second non-exposed area.
However, when the blind is returned, the blind passes through an exposure window area so that the light may be partially blocked by the blind. Accordingly, a stain may appear in the exposed area due to different amounts of exposure.
When the stain is relatively serious, the display quality of the liquid crystal display panel may be deteriorated. Even when the stain is not relatively serious, the stain may be a noise for detecting other display errors. Thus, the display quality may be deteriorated.